Aftermath of pogrom in Kielce

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Film

Aftermath of pogrom in Kielce

A pogrom took place in Kielce, Poland, in July 1946. Forty-two Jews were massacred and about 50 more were wounded. The event touched off a mass migration of hundreds of thousands of Jews from Poland and other countries of eastern and central Europe. This clip shows Jewish refugees, survivors of the pogrom, waiting to leave Poland and crossing into Czechoslovakia.

Transcript

In July 1946, Jews had to run again for their lives. In the city of Kielce, the fascist underground killed 41 Jews. A trickle became a stream, a stream became a flood. Ten, a hundred, a thousand, soon a hundred thousand fled, trying to reach the border. Fully half the refugees were Jews, who in the spring had returned to Poland from Russia, eager to rebuild their lives. Humanely, the Czech government granted aid and passageway to the persecuted, but on JDC [American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee] fell much of the obligation of helping the refugees on their way, across Czechoslovakia, then Austria, and down the roads that lead to safety in the American zone of Germany.